Day 5

The Finnish trio of Matti Järvinen from Tampere, Matti Sippala from Kotka, and Eino Penttilä from Lappeenranta secured gold, silver and bronze medals in the javelin throw.

Finnish-American javelin banter

The Finns maintained their confident attitude during the long competition tour. Finnish coach Jaakko Mikkola from Harvard University warned about the tough competition from strong American throwers in New York, to which Järvinen calmly responded, "Let's just put them in the same bundle."

The javelin final took place at the hot Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles on the afternoon of August 4. Attention was immediately drawn to the attire of the men from the spruce forests: the trio threw javelins wearing warm-up pants. Whispers of arrogance could be heard. The Finns, on the other hand, shook their heads while witnessing the poor technique of the American throwers.

Järvinen's overwhelming performance

There was no doubt about the winner. Matti Järvinen threw 72.71m (238-9) on his third attempt. Ilta-Sanomat's journalist Sulo Kolkka summed up Järvinen's dominance: "First, there's Matti, then there's nothing, then there's still nothing, and only after that come the others."

As for the medals of Matti Sippala and Eino Penttilä, they had to be anxiously awaited until the final rounds, as the powerful German, Gottfried Weimann, had aggressively thrown 68.18m (223-12) with his first attempt. Despite a back injury, Sippala threw past the German with his last attempt (69.80m - 229-2)). Penttilä, on the other hand, had already overtaken Weimann with his fifth throw (68.70m - 225-9)).

"A German journalist next to me slammed his typewriter to the ground, and I tried to be very quiet, with only the reflection of inner joy on my face," reminisces Dr. Martti Jukola, who witnessed the triple victory in the press stand at Memorial Coliseum.

Audiovisuals

• Film

• The Finnish javelin trio reminisces about the competition (audio documentary, in Finnish)

Results and Reports

• Olympedia

• Wikipedia

Newspaper and Online Stories

• Urheilun historiaa, March 16, 2014 (in Finnish)

• Viipurin Urheilijat, August 2, 2018 (in Finnish)

• Seura, August 8, 2021 (in Finnish)

Mildred "Babe" Didrikson nails her countrywoman Evelyne Hall by a minimal margin. Both set a new world record of 11.7.

Audiovisuals

• Film (IOC) 

Results and Reports

• Olympedia

• Wikipedia

Online Stories 

• The Olympians, December 11, 2016

• IOC

• ESPN

• Humanities Texas